A conversation about artistic research with South African filmmaker Jyoti Mistry.

Income losses of up to 100 % and still-non-existent perspectives on how, in what form, and above all when things might be able to go forward: that’s the situation in mid-April for numerous arts and cultural professionals in Austria.

For two years now, the mdw has been one of the first universities in Austria to use 100 % green power—which is just one among many examples of sustainable university management set by the initiative “green mdw”.

Providing the best possible conditions for all members of a university community while leaving behind a fair ecological footprint is a daily challenge.

Since March 2020, Vienna RSO Chief Conductor Marin Alsop has been an artist in residence at the mdw, where she’s also the first woman to teach orchestral conducting. The maestra joined Rector Ulrike Sych and Vice Rector Gerda Müller for a conversation about quotas, excellence, and equal opportunities.

Well-tempered is an expression that pops up frequently in conversations with Henning Backhaus. This wouldn’t be surprising if he were a musician, but when a filmmaker uses it, it’s a good bit more noticeable.

Conference attendance, lecture tours, guest lectureships: research is international and produces an enormous ecological footprint. So how can it be made to function in a more climate-friendly manner?

In the September 2019 issue of the music periodical  nmz (Neue Musikzeitung) , German composer and concert educator Bernhard König published an essay entitled “Monteverdi und der Klimawandel” [Monteverdi and Climate Change]. What König wrote there represented some important food for thought for many at our institution.

Olga Neuwirth was born in Graz in 1968. She began taking trumpet lessons at age seven but had to give up playing later on due to an accident. In 1986, she went to San Francisco and enrolled at the Conservatory of Music as well as at the Academy of Art College, where she studied painting and film. She eventually transferred to the mdw.